A humble blog of a Czech guy working with Social Media and living in Bangkok, Thailand.

Starting my 14th year of delivering the commercial messages of all kinds using Digital Media. I have used Social Media before they were called Social Media, and I wonder every day about the miracle of the real-life human-to-human connections enhance by technology.

A list of my favorite campaigns, with no chronological order. Enjoy and comment with links to yours!

Subservient chicken by CP + B

The Subservient Chicken was created to promote Burger King's TenderCrisp chicken sandwich, a new addition to the menu that was kind of an attack of KFC. The online campaign is a part of "Have it Your Way" concept. I consider the viral-website part of the campaign one of the biggest breakthrough ideas ever made in advertising. It was fresh, using a new medium with deep understanding how it works, high level of tehcnological skill but did not demand any from the user. The only troublesome part was the server and connection speed back those times. It is one those ideas that get copied by dozens of other agencies - the type of idea that every mad man wants to have in their bio.

Unfortunately, after a decade of CP+B running the campaign website, it is not functioning anymore. Get a taste of the campaign in a video below.

Philips Body Groom

One of the first full-video-based advertising websites in history. A great idea playfully working with a sensitive topic. The success of the campaign is no doubt connected with perfect casting - or better said a great performance of the actor. The website is unfortunately down for years so again I only paste a video that gives you the feeling; but the whole site was interactive and launching several short or longer videos describing the functions and features of the Philips body grooming machine.

Absolut Vodka

That's it, a bottle. In 1500 variations launched over 25 years, making it the the longest uninterrupted ad campaign in history. The beauty of the campaign is in my humble opinion the in the fact that it allows Absolut to relate itself to locations, cultural icons, historical milestones, shocking news that shake the society... It has attracted artists such as Andy Warhol and some of the pieces became a memorabilia sold in auctions.

Absolut - my style :)

DIRECT TV: "Get Rid Of Cable"

If I am in need of explaning someone the term" advertising concept" or "brand platform", these two following campaigns are my go-to teaching tools. A genius display of brand mission/vision combined with insights wrapped in a good execution.

Mayhem

The same story as Direct TV. Brand + insight + concept + good execution = great ad. Simple (and complicated) as that advertising is. So go Allstate!

Tchibo Facebook advertising campaign

Yes, I am serious. Tchibo Facebook advertising campaign. Maybe dull or uninteresting, but if you saw the numbers what I saw... Jaw dropping. Watch and learn from Tchibo marketing team, from their traaditional catalogues, brick shops layout to e-shop management and promotions.

Puma Hardchorus

Yes, I do have a soft spot for Droga5. Their ability to gather and insights and utilize them in Strategic Planning, with or without Ted Florea on board, is astonishing (check Athenos Hummus, Newcastle Ale or subversive Clearasil for more). Puma Hardchorus is the best "manly" response of St. Valentines in history of advertising for me.

Algida - Cornetto

This 90's pan-European campaign was launched in various languages, and of course with multiple brand names as there is no other company using so many different names for itself in different countries as Algida. Anyhow: if you grew up in that era, nothing says summer better than this ad. I embded it here in Czech language but I am sure that even if you don't understand a single word, after 30 seconds of this spot, you will be tuned for a beach trip. Try it out and let me know if it worked for you!

Heineken Entrance

There is not many more wrong quotes than "A good product sells itself" and "Advertising doesn't work ((anymore))". There are not many worse, chemical, factory-produced beers in the world then Heineken and its global success is based on its great marketing. Wieden+Kennedy have been doing a tremendous job on the account, from TV spots to activations, but my favorite is still a 2011 piece called "Entrance".

It is based on a "hero" type of narrative and "ongoing characters" type of ad story. The lead spot/video features one of the best music tracks ever used in modern advertising (composed and played in the spot by a band called "The Asteroids Galaxy Tour") and all the characters are so amazingly live because each of them has its own crafted story explaining why they are in the scene, their history and actions that lead them to the party, creating a cloud of branded content surrounding the main video, such as this one below:

I am sure that by now you are a new fan of the band and you hummm their "Sing it out loud" song. Stay a bit longer in the W+K world by watching the making of.

Despite Facebook's claim that one does not need Business Manager in order to advertise on Instagram, you should never do so. No professional or agency should ever use Facebook's "one-click" advertising solutions represented by the infamous "boost post" button. These are black holes with limited targeting and adjustment options and you should always take the longer, more complicated, but significantly more rewarding path of the Power Editor, 3rd party tool or at least Facebook's Ads Manager.

So, how to connect an Instagram account to your Facebook ads account? Once you get on the right track, it's very easy. The only trick dwells in the fact that this process happens in the Facebook Business Manager settings, not in the Ads Manager.

Select Instagram Accounts from the menu

The button you are looking for is in the top right corner.

Input IG account handle (@johnsmith)

Successful operation results in the IG account becoming part of the connect Instagram accounts overview. To remove the account, simply click on "Remove" button after selecting the right account to be deleted from the list below.

Subsequently, you will have to assign the added Instagram account to a selected Ads account (Facebook expects that mainly agencies operate multiple advertising accounts, in fact, pushes us to separate ad accounts of each brand).

This process is very simple; however Facebook's guidelines are, as always, either confusing, misleading, wrong or outdated, that motivated me to write down this note. Please let me know if you encounter any obstacles or your experiences with Instagram advertising in comments!